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This might just be coincidence but since the net neutrality decision, my night time speed has gotten way better. Ever since I started the service at about 6:00 PM until midnight the service would slow to a crawl making it almost totally unusable. This has been going on now for the 5 years I have been on Suddenlink. Now, I am getting the 20 MB/s all day long. Granted, 20 MB isn't blazingly fast but it beats the drop to roughly 1 MB/s I was getting between those times.

Therein lies the problem with comparing the US to very small (in area) countries. Also, the population of Japan is far denser than the US which makes it more profitable to offer the higher speeds at a much lower cost. That is why you are seeing the better speeds as well as more choices in provider in metropolitan areas in the US. While us in the boonies may have at most 2 providers and they both suck.

That will never happen since our whole society is based on personal greed. As long as people do it for their own pocket, the rest of society be damned, you will always have those that will do what it takes to get even more whether it is legal or not.

Disclaimer: I work Emergency Management in West Virginia. Further disclaimer, I work with people who were personally affected by that derailment and were evacuated...

The cause of the derailment is still under investigation but the Keystone pipeline's existence would not have stopped what happened. The train was transporting oil to Pennsylvania which is not where Keystone goes. So that explosion has exactly zero to do with Keystone.

I just didn't want people thinking the derailment in WV would have been avoided if Keystone was done. It is my personal belief that a combination of factors including the huge snow storm happening at the time had a big influence on the derailment, but I am willing to wait for the final determination.

Dr. Soon may even truly believe his science is valid, but the funding he receives creates a lopsided megaphone which unfairly skews the perception of the debate.

That's why there is a little thing called "peer review". If his observations are incorrect then a peer review will discover it. If his experiments can't be reproduced then the paper will be discredited (along with his career). And don't think they aren't being scrutinized given his unpopular stance. So although people tend to not bite the hand that feeds them, they also are careful of things that could ruin their career.

That being said, he should have disclosed the tie to the industry as the journal's ethics policy demands. It is up to the journal to decide if they will pull the papers. But that should in no way invalidate the science IF IT WAS PEER REVIEWED as valid.

Obviously they care about people like me, because they're taking steps to fix the situation rather than ignoring it.

Well, since the crapware came pre-installed, to really show they care they AREN'T providing you with a new system image with it removed. Instead, you are left to remove it yet again if you ever have to reset to factory....Yay Lenovo!

To my lay eye (IANAL and all) this is enough to justify more than imminent threat but actual harm:

subsequent to the breach at St. Josephs, her Discover credit card was used to make a fraudulent purchase and that hackers had tried to infiltrate her Amazon.com account -- posing as her son. Also: telemarketers were using the stolen information. Peters claimed that, after the breach, she was besieged with calls and solicitations for medical products and services companies, with telemarketers asking to speak to her and with specific family members, whose contact information was part of the record stolen from St. Joseph's.

For this judge to say it is simply ignoring the actual harm done is mind blowing...

A Libertarian like myself would point out, the government has no business banning drugs, because a free citizen ought to remain free to kill/harm himself in any fashion he chooses.

The problem with that line of thinking is when the drug user crosses the line into the rights of others like they so often do. When the drug user commits other crimes to get the drugs up to and including killing innocent people.

We have a great experiment in Colorado not just economically but socially. I have seen that the legalization of recreational pot they have a very large surplus in taxes but the figures on crime have not been widely published. I am most interested in the drugged driving stats.But I doubt they will separate that from the drunk driver stats.

1. Public schools -- These are schools funded by public sources such as taxes and lottery earnings, etc.. They are often portrayed as crime ridden and failing in educating but this is often a function of the community they are in. Poorer communities tend to have poorer public education systems. It does have the advantage of socializing that other types of education lack (more on this later).

2. Charter / private schools -- These are schools that derive their funding from private sources such as tuition or through vouchers for poorer families. In the case of religious private schools, they also concentrate on their religious teachings as well as the standard curriculum. You find these in richer communities and they have the advantage over public schools because they can pick and choose whether the student will attend. Many see them as siphoning out the best students from the public school system and reducing the resources availible to public schools.

3. Home schooling -- This is where the student is taught at home for various reasons (some valid, some not) mostly for the reason of the perception that the previously mentioned types do not suit the needs or beliefs of the parents. The difficulty with home schooling is one of credentialing and certifying that the state approved requirements are being met. Home schooling requires a much higher degree of involvement on the part of the parents which often can't be the case due to the necessity of having both parents working to make ends meet. You do mostly see home schooling being done by parents who either have a high degree of distrust in the public forms of education or have a religious reason. Lastly, there are some areas that are remote or that have extreme weather conditions where home schooling is the norm. But these circumstances are fewer in the US because of the extensive network of public / private schools available and public funding of busing.

Personally, I think home schooling is a bad thing for kids since it doesn't teach them the proper socialization they will need as adults. It is often done for all the wrong reasons in all the wrong ways which can and often does hold the child back making things worse for that kid. And as the poster of this article has noted, it does tend to be the parents that can't let go of their offspring that want to keep them home all the time. This is unhealthy IMO. I personally believe that home schooling should be the choice of last resort since it does require a much higher degree of commitment from parents which often can't be met especially in poorer communities.